History of the Saracen/FW Evans ATB
ATB/Saracen ATB? (Manufactured by Bluemels).
In 1982/3, Richard Ballantine asked London bike shop F.W. Evans Cycles to build up two Ritchey frames he had brought from the U.S. for Tim Gartside's and Peter Murphy's ,February 1983, Saharan expedition.
Evans were curious and later persuaded Bluemels to build some bikes based on what they had seen. The resulting FW Evans ATBs were mostly silver and branded under the shops own marque. The Bluemels’ own Saracens bikes were identical, apart from being painted black.
In the spring of 84 I hired a rare, black framed, FW Evans ATB from Kingston Cycles. According to the receipt its frame number was 0001. Possibly the first Blumels' production mountain bike? Or even the first mass-produced British' mountain bike?
Early 1984 F.W. Evans
My first Mountain bike an FW Evans ATB ( i.e. Ritchey copy, with drops, these were fitted from new). Photo taken Summer 1984 (I rode from Liverpool to Southport and the back along the coast and across Liverpool without seeing another mountain bike all day).